^[A1U'JI, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



145 



August. Its suecessful performance depends 

 largely upon how each of the others has 

 l)ecn done. Colonies that have been proper- 

 ly wintered can be set out on almost any 

 kind of day the latter part of March or first 

 of April, and only the simplest precautions 

 are necessary to prevent drifting. If they 



were alike in strength and vigor in Sep- 

 tember, they should be alike now. How dif- 

 ferent it is with colonies that have not win- 

 tered well! With these the greatest care is 

 necessary at this time, and no amount of 

 skill can retrieve a situation lost earlier in 

 the mai'ch of events. 



ANOTHER BIG-HIVE IDEA 



Thirteen -frame Hive for Brood- 

 chamber 'With Eight -frame Supers. 

 Saues Much Time, Work, and Cost 



By Harry Hewitt 



THE subject 

 of larger 

 hives is con- 

 tinually c r o p - 

 jnng up in our 

 bee journals, 

 and during the 

 last few months 

 has been a no- 

 ticeable feature 

 in Gleanings and the American Bee Journal. 

 The merits of the long-idea, the 10-frame 

 Dadant, the 10-frame story-and-a-half per- 

 manent brood-chamber have all been dis- 

 cussed, and next came the description of 

 Adams «& Myers' 13-franie barns. 



The size of the hive is probably more a 

 question of location than anything else. In 

 this locality the 8-frame hive is almost uni- 

 versal, and a great many successful apiar- 

 ists are perfectly satisfied with its use. Per- 

 sonally, I believe that our 8-fitime hive with 

 good combs will turn out plenty of bees to 

 handle the majority of flows, and I cannot 

 thinlc that big brood-chambers have as much 

 influence on swarming as is claimed; for I 

 find that colonies where the queen has the 

 run of two and three sets of combs are just 

 as apt to swarm as where the queen is eon- 

 fined to one set with an excluder. My rec- 

 ord for the past season also shows that the 

 heaviest yields were from queens confined 

 to eight combs. In this locality it is not 

 always best for our queens to raise a maxi- 

 mum number of bees, for many of our flows 

 are of short duration and are followed by 

 periods of honey dearth. In a normal orange 

 flow it is only the eggs laid during the first 

 week that are of any value in securing the 

 crop, and, should the queens continue laying 

 to their maximum capacity for the succeed- 

 ing two or three weeks, they will produce 

 an enormous force of bees that will be con- 

 sumers and not producers during almost the 

 entire period of their field life. 



Altho I consider an 8-frame brood-nest 

 ample for the needs of this locality when in 

 the hands of an experienced beekeeper, it 

 has its drawbacks when in the hands of a 

 beginner, for there is the danger of taking 

 away too much honey and allowing the bees 

 to starve. This, however, is always the 

 fault of the man and not of the hive. An- 

 other failing, which applies equally to the 

 10-frame hive, is the difficulty in getting at 

 the brood-nest when it is tiered up three and 

 more stories high. Many colonies are al- 

 lowed to run down, or are lost for no other 



reason than this 

 inac cessibility 

 of the brood- 

 chamber. 



I cannot r e - 

 member for 

 what purpose I 

 made a square 

 hive, 13 - frame, 

 about four 

 years ago; but it has proved its worth to 

 such a degree that my future permanent 

 outyards will be equipped with these 13- 

 frame brood-chambers. Do not think I am 

 inconsistent in adopting this big brood-nest 

 after my remarks about the 8-frame hive, 

 for I am doing it not to give the queen more 

 room but to save time and a great amount 

 of heavy lifting. My object is to stick to 

 the handy 8-frame equipment and at the 

 same time have the immediate accessibility 



Hewitt's 13-l'i 

 pers, showiiij 



til 8 fraino su- 

 insjiecting the 



accessibility when 

 colony. 



of the brood-chamber enjoyed by the users 

 of the long-idea hive. The photographs 

 show, better than any description, how this 

 is obtained. It is true that only four frames 

 can be taken out and one side of the fifth 

 seen; but these five frames will invariably 

 show the condition of the colony. 



This may appear an outlandish shape for 

 a beehive, but its advantages are manifest, 

 and it would solve the problem for those 

 beekeepers who desire a bigger brood-nest, 

 but who are afraid to make the change be- 

 cause the cost would be prohibitive. The 

 only additional cost would be for hive 

 bodies and bottoms, and for the bodies only 

 new rabbeted ends would be necessarv. 



